Earlier this month I enjoyed the Above Rubies retreat in Olympia Washington. Above Rubies is a ministry to encourage wives and mothers. This was a women's retreat (they have family retreats, also) and my second in this location. Nancy Campbell shares her wisdom with us and there is amazing fellowship with many like-minded women. My dear friends from Girl's Group all try to go. We missed Annette this year, but Jennifer came from Idaho and that was a huge treat. We were up until the wee hours of the morning discussing intense subjects. We talked a lot about judging others in many areas of life, including church and even adoption issues (both Jennifer and Charissa are in the adoption process). It was so rewarding, thoughtful and convicting. God has spoken to me many times through our discussions in Girl's Group and this was no exception.
As we were pulling into camp, Jennifer called home to make sure all was well. Just before she called, her family (Leon with their 6 children), had gotten home from skiing and found a neighbor dog mauling their cat to death. It was so traumatic, especially for their oldest girl (I think she is 12). She had answered the phone and was crying out to Jennifer about the situation and what should or was being done. And Jennifer said (that was the side we were all hearing), "Havilah, I trust Papa... you can trust Papa, too." I wish you could have heard her say it, the tone in her voice, the gentle and confident direction to help her daughter trust in her father's ability to handle the situation. It brought us all to tears. It is what God says to us every moment, whispering to us, pleading in his gentle confidence, "You can trust me." It also exemplifies what our Girl's Group is about, encouraging each other to guide in gentle confidence our children and ourselves in trusting our husbands as God's leader of our homes.
Either this is an exceptionally windy year or this hill is a windy area. Otto and Solomon wanted to take out some garbage bags to fly in the wind. I try to say yes to these kinds of requests because they offer experience with the sciences. Solomon tied some twine onto his bag. I think Otto originally had a stick on his, but took it off. I was watching from the house when Otto lost hold of his 'kite' and it flew into the tree. I thought, "Bummer, now everyone will have to look at that big white garbage bag in the beautiful branches." But, then it blew out! Great! Otto thought it was great too and was confident it would always blow out. Unfortunately it didn't as you can see from the pictures.
The sun shining on to top branches is a frequent view we all enjoy. As you see, although a few days later, the bag is still there. I apologized to our manager, but she said there were 2 or 3 in the trees behind their house that their girls and friends lost. This seems to be a wonderfully understanding community. It helps that there are many other families here with young children, mostly girls. Our next door neighbor has a 3 year old boy and said there were all girls playing outside last summer. Olivia will certainly like that! She has already made friends with some of them.
